DP 37 Seminole 34

[badbird]

Seminole missed a 37 TD fg at the end of regulation and a 21 TD fg in 2ot. Hats off to them on a great season and good luck to DP next week.

[181pl]

Wow. Seems like it was a hell of a match up. Pulling for Dr. P in the finals. They are over due for a title.

[DarterBlue2]

Wow. Seems like it was a hell of a match up. Pulling for Dr. P in the finals. They are over due for a title.

It was a hell of a match-up. To Dp's credit, they battled back to win. However, they had their fair share of luck. Seminole missed a 38 yard field goal wide left by no more than a couple feet at the most as the regulation clock expired. If the second quarter their kicker made one from a similar distance. They also missed a 22 yard field goad to tie in the second overtime as the ball hit the left upright and rebounded into play. Again, in the second quarter, their kicker had made a similar field goal. 

 

Seminole let Dp. back into the game, when their QB made his only noticeable mistake of the game, as he threw an interception early in the third which Dp. took back around 34 yards for 6. This brought Dp. to only being down 4 at 20-24. Overall, Seminole only gave up 13 to Dp's offense in regulation as the other two Dp. scores were the pick 6 early in the third, and a 60+ yard punt return by Tanner Ingle (he has a habit of scoring this way) in the second. 

 

Against Seminole, Dp. allowed Seminole's offensive line to create a lot of key blocks which resulted in a fair amount of yards and first downs. For most of the game, the Seminole QB was also protected well and had time to get his passes off. The fact that Wiggins is also quite athletic, helped his cause (I think the Green Wave made a mistake in rescinding his offer, as while he may be a bit undersized for a college qb, the kid is an excellent dual threat). If Southridge can do the same, trust me, Dp. is not going to score 27 points as their defense is more than a tad better than Seminole's, which will result in Dp. having fewer long drives while the clock eating offense will ensure they are from much deeper within Dp's own half unless they can force turnovers. I will say that Seminole does have a better (perhaps much better) QB than Southridge, which has an athlete playing the position. This leads to the under utilization of some very good receivers that line up for them, as he very often fails to see or get the ball to wide open receivers (hence the long drives with a lot of between the tackle runs and short passes). 

 

Having seen Southridge in their regional final against Coral Gables, they have a rather mundane offense, which scores by going on long clock eating drives and a stellar defense aided and abetted by the fact the offense tends to eat a lot of clock. For Phillips to have a chance to win this final, they will have to do two things. First, they will have to force Southridge turnovers either by fumbles, interceptions or quick three and outs. Then second, they will still need to score at least 20, a feat no team has done since early in the season. Dp. will also have to exhibit more discipline than they did last night as a number of Seminole drives were kept alive or significantly aided by stupid penalties. Dp., can't do this in the title game and expect to win. 

 

I am not saying the above is impossible for Dp. to accomplish, but it is going to have to raise its game, particularly defensively, in order to win. At this juncture, despite the fact I would like to see Phillips win, I am going to take Southridge by 7 or slightly more. If Dp. can elevate its game in the final, then they have a chance. If not, they will end up being a bridesmaid for the second time.

 

To me, the Dp team that lost to Central in 2010 on the field is still far and away Dp.'s best ever. That was a game they should have won after going up by 17 in the first quarter. It is not that they were necessarily better than Central which also had a great team, too. But they should never have surrendered that much of a lead as the difference between the two was negligible.